United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said a global warming treaty may be “beyond our reach” this week as India and China rejected pressure for developing nations to adopt mandatory pollution targets.

“We must be realistic about the opportunity of a breakthrough in Durban,” Ban said at UN climate talks in the South African port city today. “There are great economic troubles.”

India, speaking with the Basic negotiating group of countries that also includes South Africa, Brazil and China, said industrial nations should move first in cutting fossil fuel emissions. The comments marked a hardening of positions that reduces the scope for an agreement in time for the meeting’s conclusion on Dec. 9.

“Basic countries are not major polluters,” Indian Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan said today in Durban, South Africa, where the talks are being held. “They are emerging market economies. They have a small footprint in the context of historical emissions.”

After nine days of meetings, envoys from more than 190 nations remain divided about how to extend limits on greenhouse gas emissions once the Kyoto Protocol expires next year. The 1997 treaty capped emissions for industrial nations. It included no targets for developing nations including China and India, which since then have become two of the three biggest polluters.

China vs U.S.
China, India and Brazil are pushing industrial nations to extend Kyoto, saying any climate pact must recognize the historical responsibility of the nations that caused the problem to act first. The U.S., Canada, Japan and Russia say they want a treaty that requires cuts from all parties. The European Union says it will extend Kyoto if all nations agree to adopt a legally-binding treaty by 2015.

“The United States is setting an unreasonably high bar for reaching a comprehensive agreement,” said Tim Gore, climate policy adviser at Oxfam. “They are talking about legal parity with developing countries. They are talking about it because they know it can’t be delivered.”

As ministers and heads of state joined to work on conclusions for the talks, the developing countries stepped up resistance to taking on limits for fossil fuel emissions. The biggest stumbling block was the question whether developing nations would be treated the same as industrial ones or whether they would remain outside a system of cuts.

‘Thorny’
“The time has come to address the thorny political issues before us,” said Christiana Figueres, the UN diplomat leading the meeting.

Brazil has “no problem” with devising a timeline to a deal, so long as it doesn’t prejudge whether that eventual arrangement sets legally binding targets for all nations, said Luiz Alberto Figueiredo, the nation’s ambassador to the talks.

“I cannot simply say now that we will agree with that if we don’t know now what will be the conditions,” Figueiredo said. “We have no problem in looking at a timeline that will take us from here to there. The structure of that post-2020 framework will be solved in the negotiations.”

$100 Billion Aid
Developing countries also expressed concern that promises made at previous meetings in Copenhagen and Cancun, Mexico, haven’t been kept. They want quicker action on dispensing the $100 billion in aid and a Green Climate Fund to start working and assistance for adapting to the impact of climate change.

“We are deeply disappointed that the fast-track funding promised to us in Copenhagen has to large extent failed to materialize,” said Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. This, he said, puts the entire process “at risk in the eyes of our continent.”

The U.S. says it won’t adopt a legally binding climate treaty unless developing nations are required to make reductions too. Todd Stern, the nation’s lead envoy at the talks, said he didn’t think he heard anything new in China’s proposal to consider cuts after 2020 if certain conditions were met.

“It’s not my impression that there has been any change at all in the Chinese position,” Stern told journalists after a meeting with his counterpart from Beijing. While developing nations are fixed on renewing Kyoto, the main priority for the U.S. is building on the agreement made last year in Cancun, which has voluntary emissions cuts from more nations.

“I don’t think that the Kyoto architecture, a sort of firewall between all developed and all developing countries including all the biggest ones, is a sort of tenable architecture for the future,” Stern said.

They have long been championed as a way to combat global warming by creating clean energy.

But wind farms can actually alter the climate according to a new study by a group of American scientists.

The team from the University of Illinois found that daytime temperatures around wind farms can fall by as much as 4C, while at night temperatures can increase.

The study found that currently the effect is restricted to areas near to the turbines, but the increase in larger farms could create weather changes on a regional scale.

The study was led by Somnath Roy, assistant professor of atmospheric sciences at the university, with the San Gorgonio wind farm in California the focal point of his research.

He found that the day ground temperature behind turbines was up to 4C lower than in front.

He suggested that the turbines’ blades scoop warm from the ground and push the cooler air downwards. This is then reversed at night.

Roy, whose findings were published in the Sunday Times, added that he believes the turbines causing turbulence and reducing winds speed are the cause.

He also added that the churning of air from low to high can create vortices that could extend the phenomenon for large distances downwind.

Roy’s research is supported by a study undertaken by the Iowa State University, who looked at how a 100-turbine farm would affect conditions on farmland.

They found that temperatures on the ground were warmer at night, which in turn allowed plants to breathe more.

While scientists in the United States have conducted research into the effects of wind farms on climate, such research in the UK is at an early stage.

Currently no measurements have been made on changes to weather around British farms despite plans to increase turbines by tenfold.

The UK currently has 3,500 wind turbines, with a further 800 under construction.

The Government aim to have 10,000 onshore and 4,300 offshore by 2020, but the rapid growth has led to 101 Tory MPs writing to David Cameron about the proposal.

The members are calling for a dramatic cut in subsidies to onshore wind farms and more influence for local people to stop them being built.

The move is seen as a major revolt against government policy and sees the politicians join forces with other parties to express serious concerns over the level of taxpayers’ money going to the sector.

The letter was organised by backbencher Chris Heaton-Harris and has senior signatories including David Davis and Nicholas Soames.

In the letter, which was seen by the Sunday Telegraph, they wrote: ‘In these financially straitened times, we think it is unwise to make consumers pay, through taxpayer subsidy, for inefficient and intermittent energy production that typifies onshore wind turbines.’

They also expressed concerns that the proposed National Planning Policy Framework ‘diminishes the chances of local people defeating onshore wind farm proposals through the planning system’.

State help for one of the most controversial sources of renewable energy is being cut but only slowly, under plans set out by ministers last year.

Speaking about the letter a Downing Street spokesman said: ‘We need a low carbon infrastructure and onshore wind is a cost effective and valuable part of the UK’s diverse energy mix.

‘The Government has commissioned a review of subsidy levels and we are already proposing a cut for onshore wind subsidies to take into account the fact that costs are coming down.

‘We are committed to giving local communities the power to shape the spaces in which they live and are getting rid of regional targets introduced by the last government.’

A NEW Arctic blast is about to hit Britain and plunge temperatures lower than the North Pole.

Forecasters say “serious cold” in the next few days will cause widespread ice, snow and severe frosts.

The mercury will plummet to -15C (5F) overnight with daytime temperatures struggling to get above freezing as bitter Siberian air sweeps in – and there may be no let-up for days.

The big freeze threatens to cause mayhem for the big half-term getaway with chaos likely on roads and transport networks from Friday.

The entire country is at risk all week from snow and sleet which will freeze overnight, making driving conditions treacherous.

Flights from Heathrow could be cancelled for the second time in a week after planes were grounded because of snow last weekend.

Forecasters say “serious cold” in the next few days will cause widespread ice, snow and severe frosts

A spokesman for the airport said: “We ask passengers to keep an eye on weather forecasts and keep in touch with their airline for the latest information.”

The Met Office issued severe weather warnings for ice today with a Level 3 cold weather health alert in place until Friday.

Spokesman Dan Williams said: “There are very cold nights over the next few days with some areas struggling above 1C or 2C during the day.

“There is a risk of snow and sleet and with temperatures falling overnight, this will freeze. There is a risk of snow at Heathrow airport but we are keeping an eye on this.”

Half an inch of snow was expected in the South-east by this morning with more on the way tomorrow.

The coldest point of this winter so far came last Saturday morning when South Newington, Oxfordshire, hit -12.4C.

That is the coldest night since December 2010 when Altnaharra, in the Scottish Highlands hit -21.3C.

But temperatures are expected to be -12C today and tomorrow in rural areas, falling to -15C in parts.

Britain is officially colder than the North and South Poles with the Norwegian island of Svalbard – famous for polar bears – a relatively mild -6C.

MeteoGroup forecaster Aisling Creevey said: “It’s not unreasonable for some places to be -13C or -14C, with -15C not unthinkable with clear skies in isolated places.”

Netweather forecasters warned of “serious cold overnight” over the next few days.

They said: “With cold continental air still in control in eastern and central regions, it stays chilly by day and bitterly cold by night with lows perhaps dipping to -15C or below during the coming nights.

“Ice is going to continue to be a hazard, particularly in those parts which still have lying snow which is gently thawing in the day and then quickly re-freezing once the sun goes down.”

The icy snap is the result of freezing air from Russia clashing with milder air from the Atlantic over the UK.

Mr Williams added: “We are still seeing this ‘battleground Britain’ situation. It is where the cold air from the east meets the Atlantic air that we can get snow and we are keeping an eye on these boundaries.”

He said: “This year’s temperature is put into context by last winter’s low, but this is still very cold. The average you would expect for this time of year would be around -1C, and we are looking at widespread -7C or -8C. You can see how much colder it is than normal.”

The Met Office’s Helen Chivers said that rain, snow and sleet falling in northern and western parts could gradually extend to the South-east through next week.

Health chiefs have warned the cold snap could see around 300 people die every day.

Wildlife experts say animals and plants lulled into a false sense of security by the mild start to the winter are being killed as temperatures plunge.

Snowdrops and daffodils which emerged earlier than expected have died off and frog spawn has been killed by the extreme cold. Woodland Trust spokesman Chris Hickman said: “This is a prolonged cold period and plants and trees which had early spring growth face being destroyed or damaged.

“Their cells are frozen and frosty ground means they struggle to take up water.

“Tree buds which are killed will start again but it is unlikely destroyed flower bulbs would flower again until next year.”

The freezing weather this week sparked fears of a winter vomiting outbreak with health officials warning norovirus cases could soar.

In the past fortnight the bug has been suspected in 34 hospitals, of which 19 were confirmed to be norovirus.

The Health Protection Agency’s advice is to wash hands regularly, particularly after using the toilet and before eating.